Greg van Eekhout
![Greg van Eekhout](/assets/img/authors/greg-van-eekhout.jpg)
Greg van Eekhout
Greg van Eekhout is a science fiction and fantasy writer. His "In the Late December"was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story, and his middle-grade fantasy novel The Boy at the End of the World was nominated for the 2012 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy...
ProfessionWriter
alive having-hope keeping-hope
To act as though we have hope is to keep hope alive
too-much tales reader
As a reader, I tend not to get too much from tales of unrelenting grimness.
stars war dark
Being part of the original Star Wars generation, I have always known a dark future.
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In high school, I stole a six-foot submarine sandwich from a banquet room in front of several hundred people. I did it because I was in marching band, and we were promised food if we played, and they broke their promise. It was my first and only heist, motivated by justice and hunger.
became boy build civilization convinced dark destroyed fiction future natural nearly novel peril promised science seemed thinking
As a kid, I didn't need to be convinced the future promised peril and oppression, so when I started thinking up the middle-grade science fiction novel that became 'The Boy at the End of the World,' it seemed only natural to build the story around a dark vision of the future. In my book, civilization has nearly destroyed itself.
book daniel eats family love power survive trilogy trust trying volume wizard
'California Bones' is the first volume in my trilogy about Daniel Blackland, a wizard trying to survive in a world that eats wizards. It's a book about friends and family, trust and betrayal, the love of power and the power of love.
future known original
Being part of the original 'Star Wars' generation, I have always known a dark future.
age genre particular reason
I think there's only one reason to write in any genre or to any particular age group: You are called to it. You think it'd be fun.
hit humor mix striving
In everything I write, I'm always striving to hit the right mix of light and darkness, humor and pain, fun and seriousness.
absolutely certain experience faith point practice push terrible word
At a certain point in the writing of any book, you become absolutely certain that it's terrible and is only getting more terrible with every word you write. This is normal. You just have to keep going, push your way through, and have faith that, through practice and experience and determination, you will get to the end.
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Back in 1982, when there were still only a manageable number of 'X-Men' titles on the racks (by which I mean just one), Marvel quite reasonably figured the world could stand another team of beleaguered mutant superheroes. And so were born 'The New Mutants,' junior X-Men whose powers had just begun to manifest at the onset of puberty.
books continue equally far hope included
I feel lucky that my career so far has included books for adults and books for kids. They're equally important to me, and I hope I get to continue writing both.
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I grew up in Los Angeles, and I was always fascinated by the La Brea Tar Pits. Right in the middle of the city, in an area called the Miracle Mile, for crying out loud, we have these eldritch ponds of dark, bubbling goo. And down in the muck, there're all these amazing fossils: mammoth and saber tooth cat and dire wolf.
basically eat fat good magic protein though work
I try to eat vegetarian, though I'm not very good at it, and it's a work in progress. But we basically are what we eat. Eat fat, and there's fat in your body. Eat protein, and there's protein in your body. Eat magic, and there's magic in your body.